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Flood control system works like a charm in Cranberry Subdivision

Impoundment also serves as subdivision park

A view of the stormwater system at Cranberry Park at 3032 N. Cranberry Loop. (Carie Canterbury / Daily Record)

Mother Nature can pour all the rain she wants on Cañon City. Cranberry Park subdivision owners, Terrye Clear and Jim Davis, are prepared.

They are so prepared, in fact, that the Sept. 11 downpour that caused havoc in much of Fremont County had no effect on the subdivision's homes or property.

When the 11.6-acre subdivision was built in 2007 and 2008, Clear said he and Davis designed the storage impoundment to not only serve as stormwater containment, but also as a park. By law, stormwater can be detained, but not retained, Clear said.

"This is designed for a 500-year flood," he said.

All the water that falls over the the subdivision flows to the pond where it is contained, cleaned and re-released back into the aquifer. In the case of a 500-year flood, Clear said a pipe redirects water to a secondary pond, that also contains cleaners that will clean the water, before releasing it to Fourmile Creek.

The water trickles through grating and layers of filter sand, leach rock, cobbles and geotextile fabric. The contraption is 17 feet tall, most of which is underground. The "chimney" measures 12 by 12 feet above ground. By the time it's diverted to the river, the water is clean.

"We don't put any dirty water back," he said. "The credit does not go to us—it goes to our engineers and Adam Lancaster, the city engineer."

Ron Southard of Alpine Engineering in Buena Vista designed the project, which then was reviewed by Lancaster and E.C. Service Engineering. The State Water Engineer in Pueblo gave the final green light for the project. Tezak Construction built the infrastructure for the subdivision, which Clear said also contributed to the success of the project.

Clear said the state engineer said the plans looked good on paper, but nobody would know for sure if the project would be successful, until it was actually put to the test.

"Well, it happened," Clear said. "And now that it's happened, we realized the system works, and it works well."

On the first night of the initial rains, the pond had about six feet of water spread out in the bottom of the pond, but because it was draining at the same time, that didn't even take one-fourth of the pond's capacity.

Clear said because of how the subdivision was built, with the water being retained and the foundations being built two feet above the street, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has released each of the structures out of the floodplain. Cranberry Park homeowners do not have to buy flood insurance, Clear said. The subdivision has 14 completed homes and room for 33 more.

The impoundment was made into a park, with grass, a walking trail and three sitting areas. A fountain that will retain its own water is being built by some of the homeowners to set on the chimney, adding to the ambiance of the park.